Australia’s longest election campaign in 50 years is over.
It is not an easy time to lead anywhere in the world and we congratulate Prime Minister Turnbull and the Coalition on their re-election.
This was a close election, with just a few thousand votes separating Government and Opposition.
While the result was close, we hope that the Government and the Opposition do not take the wrong lessons from the outcome.
The result should not be considered a ‘three-year leave pass’ from economic reform.
We should not think that the 25 years of economic growth that Australia has concluded was achieved by ignoring the economic fundamentals.
Last week, S&P put Australia on negative credit watch and it is a reminder that Australia is responsible for its own economic future.
The property industry has a vital role in continuing Australia’s economic growth. It has been the property and construction sector that has largely filled the hole left by the end of the mining investment boom.
However, as readers of Property Australia know, a number of leading indicators are softening in our sector.
Continued reform is vital. The need to re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission is very real and we urge the government to find a legislative pathway to deliver this important reform.
We need to address the issue of housing affordability. It is a real issue across our major cities and a major concern to the community. The reality is that, in this election, neither side made a substantive effort to address this issue.
One of the challenges for this parliament is to tackle the policy impediments that have contributed to the worsening of housing affordability. To this end, our industry extends our hand to the Government, Opposition and the crossbenches to work with them on developing a substantive agenda to deal with this issue.